The Castle , Karen to Amboseli National Park- The Roof of Africa Friday 22nd Jan

Left the Castle @ 8.30 and headed south for the couple hundred km drive to arrive at the entrance about 1.30 to get greeted as usual by the local Massai ladies crowding around the car trying to sell their trinkets. The camp ground was on the other side of the park so we had a couple of hours of game driving to get there.

Amboseli National Park is 392 km squared and its main attraction is the sight of hundreds of big Tusker elephants set against the backdrop of Africa's best views of Mt Kilimanjaro as the park lays at the bottom of the valley and the park is feed by the water running off the mountain. It formed about 1 million years ago through volcanic eruption and is Africa's highest mountain at 895 metres above sea level  Scientists think moulten lava lies just 400 metres below the summit crater and since 1912 it has lost 80% of its snow cover with predictions it will ice free by 2033. In the park , there is roughly 

6000 Zebras

3900 Gazelle

3400 Wildebeest

600 eland

750 Impala

2300 Massai Giraffe

1200 Elephants

Just a short distance into the park a big elephant was crossing  the road in front to Jan

As we drove on lots of other elephants appeared and you can see the back drop of Mt Kilimanjaro in the middle on the right. The support team said this was the best view they have seen for ages as its normally covered in clouds

Another clearer shot of the summit.

Got into camp about 3pm and set up the tent. Again we were the only ones here with very few other tourists in the parkwith any tourists being driven around by the tour companies. Joey had a nanna nap and then we headed out to do a couple of hours game driving.

We were treated to many elephants wandering around and this big one only about 15 metres away from our car

The park was very wet from both the recent rains and the mountain flow of water, so wild life everywhere and lots of 4wd as we made our way up to Observsation Hill which had a great view of the park.

We could see a few hippos walking in the distance in amougst the zebras and elephants. 

As  you go back through to the camp they have electrical wires handing down to stop the elephants going into the camp grounds surrounded by an electrical fence. We didn't touch the wires to see if they had turned them on but didn't see any elephants in the camp so they must work.

Got back to camp about 6pm and Jan had organised the locals to deliver some fire wood ( which  turned out to be several large tree trunks so there will be a big bon fire night) and relaxed over pre dinner drinks 

We had finally hit some hot weather and it was the first night that I didn't have a jumper on at night

Enjoyed a hearty meal of whole BBQ chicken for dinner over a nice Sav Blanc local wine.